| Fitting Y2K Into Our Prophetic Scheme |
by David A. DePra |
| Jesus is coming again. That is something to rejoice about. It |
| is the hope of all Christianity. But He isn't coming on January 1, |
| 2000. You can pretty much bank on that. |
| Why? Because Jesus told us "the Son of Man comes at an |
| hour that you expect not." The turn of the milennium is an hour |
| we WOULD expect. Case closed. It just isn't going to happen. |
| Not likely. Not on that day. |
| But when? When will He finally come? There was never a |
| question which Jesus answered more straightforward. He said, |
| "I don't know, and YOU can't know. Period. So be ready at all |
| times." |
| This answer has been lost today. If you watch Christian |
| television, read Christian books, and keep track of what many |
| of the visible Christian ministries are saying today, you will hear |
| a strange message. It is a message which has the future all |
| mapped out for us. We are being told, in a step by step, detailed |
| way, exactly what is going to happen in the next few years to lead |
| up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. There is going to be |
| a one world government. There is going to be a man who is the |
| anti-Christ. There is going to be the mark of the beast. There is |
| going to be the great tribulation, and the rapture, either before, |
| during, or after it. It's all mapped out, ready to happen. All we |
| have to do it wait and see it unfold. |
| Some of us are so sure that all of this is exactly what is going |
| to happen that we look in the newspapers every day to find |
| fulfillments of these interpretations. Indeed, we begin to read |
| events INTO the Bible. One popular prophecy teacher recently |
| claimed that the star wars missle project of the 1980's and 1990's |
| was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Revelation that "there was war |
| in the heavens." This is a perfect example of missing the Truth |
| in favor of our need to validate our prophetic interpretations. |
| Now, all of this might seem harmless enough. Afterall, what |
| harm could there be in trying to interpret prophecy? Even if we |
| are wrong, does it really hurt anyone? |
| Maybe we ought to consider something. What if NOTHING we |
| commonly believe is going to happen leading up to the Second |
| Coming is correct? What if ALL OF IT is wrong? What if every |
| one of the events we have predicted from Bible prophecy are |
| the products of improper interpretation and religious tradition? |
| What if everything ends up happening another way -- a way which |
| is totally removed from what we expect? What if somewhere |
| along the way we have erred on how we interpret Biblical |
| prophecy? |
| If this is what has happened, then what we are going to have |
| is a group of people who will expect things to unfold one way, |
| but they are going to unfold another. Indeed, that is the best of |
| it. What we will really have are Christians who are interpreting |
| everything around them according to a pattern they have bought |
| into, but who are unaware that it is totally wrong. That is |
| deception. |
| The trouble with having things figured out ahead of time is that |
| it often doesn't matter what goes on around you -- you are going |
| to say that it fits into the pattern you have established. In other |
| words, if this or that world event takes place, it will be made to |
| fulfill my prophetic interpretation. It doesn't matter whether it does |
| or not. The pattern says it does, so it does. Progress in this |
| error far enough and you have a group of people who are totally |
| out of focus with what God is after in these times, and in their lives. |
| Jesus said we were to WATCH and PRAY. He said we were |
| to keep awake and in focus. For what? The Second Coming? |
| Well, in the ultiimate sense. But really for His workings and |
| dealings NOW. If we do that, then we will automatically be ready |
| for His literal return to earth. |
| It would be a tragic irony if the thing which gets Jesus out of |
| focus for us is our expectation that He must come in the pattern |
| we have provided for Him. Would we be ready for Him? |
| For instance, what if Jesus came tomorrow? I mean, what if He |
| came without any of the events we insist will preceed Him taking |
| place? What if, upon His arrival, we then clearly see how every |
| word of prophecy did get fulfilled, but not in the way we insisted? |
| Would we be ready? Or would we, as they did in regarding His |
| first coming, say to Him, "You can't be the Messiah. You have not |
| come in the way our prophetic interpretation demands." |
| Y2K |
| Perhaps no event will prove the point more than Y2K. For |
| over a year now, highly visible Christian television ministries have |
| been predicting the end of civilization as we know it. Some have |
| actually dug into the Bible and found verses predicting Y2K. And |
| the reasoning process is amazing. One teacher said, "We know |
| that there must be a mark of the beast. And we have figured out |
| what it is. Until computers, this was not possible. Y2K is clearly |
| the event which the government will use to take away our rights |
| and control our buying and selling." |
| Do we see what is happening here? Since we claim to know |
| world events before they will happen, we are now in the business |
| of making world events fit into our prophetic scheme. And Y2K |
| has certainly been made to fit into many a prophetic scheme. |
| Interestingly, the government tells us that Y2K should not be a |
| major problem. Only a small bump in the road. Especially in the |
| United States. This has been what they have told us almost |
| from the beginning. But some Christian ministries say the |
| government is lying, or in denial. Who is right? |
| The guess here is the government. Conspiracy theories |
| non-withstanding, and despite the fact that our government is |
| becoming more and more anti-Christian, they are probably telling |
| the truth on this one. Y2K should be treated like a severe winter |
| storm is treated. No more and no less. It won't be long before we |
| know for sure. |
| History has taught us that everytime Christians think they have |
| it figured out, they are wrong. Everytime. But we don't seem to |
| want to learn from history. We continue on making the same |
| mistake. |
| What Y2K should be is a wake-up call. It should be a wake-up |
| call to Christians to stop trying to fit God into a pre-determined |
| prophetic scheme. Let Him fit US into His purpose in His Son. * |